Automating Quora Answers with Playwright and Marked.js

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I once got a client on upwork who wanted me to automate qoura posts.

By combining Playwright, Marked.js, and a bit of JavaScript, I built a script that takes Markdown content and formats it perfectly for Quora. Let me walk you through how it works.

The Problem

Quora doesn’t support Markdown directly, so you’re stuck manually applying formatting—bold text, headings, lists, blockquotes, etc.—which can be time-consuming. For someone who writes detailed answers or works with Markdown a lot, this can become frustrating.

That’s where automation comes in. The goal was to take a Markdown file, parse it, and interact with Quora’s editor just like a human would—only faster and more consistently.

The Solution

Tools Used

Playwright: A browser automation library to interact with Quora’s web interface.
Marked.js: A Markdown parser that breaks down Markdown into tokens, making it easier to process.

Here’s a breakdown of the process:

Login to Quora Automatically: Using cookies for authentication.
Parse the Markdown Content: Convert Markdown into tokens that represent headings, paragraphs, lists, etc.
Simulate User Actions: Use Playwright to interact with Quora’s editor, applying the correct formatting for each token.

How It Works

Step 1: Parsing Markdown

The script uses Marked.js to tokenize the Markdown content into meaningful chunks. For example:

# Heading becomes a “heading” token.
**Bold text** becomes a “strong” token.
Lists, blockquotes, and links are broken into their respective tokens.

const marked = require("marked");
const tokens = marked.lexer(`
# My Answer
This is a **bold** text and a *italic* one.
- List item 1
- List item 2
[Link](https://example.com)
`);

Step 2: Automating Formatting

For each token, we simulate actions like typing, clicking toolbar buttons, or navigating Quora’s editor. Here’s how it works for common elements:

Paragraphs

Text is typed directly into the editor, followed by pressing Enter to start a new paragraph.

async function handleParagraph(page, token) {
  for (const inlineToken of token.tokens) {
    await handleInlineToken(page, inlineToken);
  }
  await page.keyboard.press("Enter");
}

Bold and Italic Text

The script selects text and applies formatting using Quora’s toolbar buttons.

async function applyFormatting(page, text, buttonSelector) {
  await page.click(buttonSelector);
  await page.keyboard.type(text);
  await page.click(buttonSelector);
}

Lists

Ordered and unordered lists are handled by clicking the appropriate toolbar button and typing the list items.

async function handleList(page, token) {
  const listType = token.ordered
    ? '[aria-label="Add ordered list"]'
    : '[aria-label="Add unordered list"]';
  await page.click(listType);
  for (const item of token.items) {
    await handleParagraph(page, item);
  }
}

Code Blocks

For code, the script clicks the “Format code” button and types the code block content.

async function handleCode(page, token) {
  await page.click('[aria-label="Format code"]');
  await page.keyboard.type(token.text);
}

Results

With this script, I can take any Markdown file, run the script, and have it neatly formatted and ready to post on Quora in seconds.

Malik Ammar Faisal